6 replies to this topic

[starfighter1314]

Hello,

I am looking for a simple utility that will output the hex codes for a player object that I will create. I want to be able to select check boxes in an 8x8 grid to make the player object. The utility should show me the hex code for each line so I can put it into my source code. I downloaded this type of utility a long time ago but can't find it anymore.

Thanks,
s

[jbanes]

starfighter1314, on Wed Sep 13, 2006 3:40 AM, said:

I am looking for a simple utility that will output the hex codes for a player object that I will create. I want to be able to select check boxes in an 8x8 grid to make the player object. The utility should show me the hex code for each line so I can put it into my source code. I downloaded this type of utility a long time ago but can't find it anymore.

Bookmark this page: PlayerPal v2.0

There's also a bBASIC IDE with such a feature.

[starfighter1314]

That PlayerPal page is really cool, but is there a way to make it so that it doesn't flip the data horizontally? I made an image and clicked generate data and it outputs the hex value for the last line first and so on.

Also, it would really be cool if there is a utility that outputs a picture as part of the code (ie the ROM pictures in combat) and can auto flip the data/picture on the X or Y axis. Does the bBasic IDE do either of these?

[jbanes]

starfighter1314, on Mon Sep 18, 2006 1:44 AM, said:

That PlayerPal page is really cool, but is there a way to make it so that it doesn't flip the data horizontally? I made an image and clicked generate data and it outputs the hex value for the last line first and so on.

Vertical flipping is normal. Most 2600 programs use counters toward zero rather than counting up. Thus the first will come last and the last will come first*.

Quote

Also, it would really be cool if there is a utility that outputs a picture as part of the code (ie the ROM pictures in combat) and can auto flip the data/picture on the X or Y axis. Does the bBasic IDE do either of these?

REFP0 and REFP1 can be used to flip player0 and player1 (respectively) the sprite horizontally. This is a feature that's part of the 2600 hardware.

Also, I'm not quite sure what you mean as "part of the code"? The PlayerPal utility outputs data suitable for ASM. To make it work for bBASIC, you only need the %00000000 part of each line, but indented by at least one space. Look at the bBASIC example code for an example of how sprites are inlined into the code.

* Matthew 20:16. Who knew the 2600 was so philisophically deep?

[starfighter1314]

Thanks for the reply!

My bad, I meant vertical flipping. Maybe I was unclear, but I wanted to know if there was a way to generate the data without this flipping applied. I am hacking Combat and the ROM images of the player characters are not flipped in the source code. I want to alter these images.

I know that REFP0 and REFP1 can be used to flip the players, but I don't want to use them as I will have asymetric characters. I would, however, like to apply the flip to a graphic that I made and then generate the data based on the flip. That way, I can flip the graphic and then make a minor change to it (making it asymetric) rather than reclicking all of the bits in a graphic that is very close to its flipped image.

As "part of the code", I mean something like this (taken from Combat). The graphic gets commented out in each line:

.byte $00 ; | |
.byte $FC ; |XXXXXX |
.byte $FC ; |XXXXXX |
.byte $38 ; | XXX |
.byte $3F ; | XXXXXX|
.byte $38 ; | XXX |
.byte $FC ; |XXXXXX |
.byte $FC ; |XXXXXX |

Does bBASIC do this? I only tried PlayerPal so far and it does not.

Thanks!
-s

[jbanes]

starfighter1314, on Mon Sep 18, 2006 3:16 PM, said:

My bad, I meant vertical flipping. Maybe I was unclear, but I wanted to know if there was a way to generate the data without this flipping applied. I am hacking Combat and the ROM images of the player characters are not flipped in the source code. I want to alter these images.

If you need a vertical flip, then I'm afraid you have to do it yourself.

On the bright side, we're usually only talking about 8 bytes of data per object. You could write a kernal that would do image flipping on the fly, but that would probably be more costly in effort and space than simply adding another image.

Quote

As "part of the code", I mean something like this (taken from Combat). The graphic gets commented out in each line:

Most tools build in the graphic by using Binary rather than Hex. For example, here's your same data, but from PlayerPal:

		.byte #%00000000;--
		.byte #%11111100;--
		.byte #%11111100;--
		.byte #%01110000;--
		.byte #%01111110;--
		.byte #%01110000;--
		.byte #%11111100;--
		.byte #%11111100;--

See how the 1's form the tank?

[starfighter1314]

Quote

If you need a vertical flip, then I'm afraid you have to do it yourself.

On the bright side, we're usually only talking about 8 bytes of data per object. You could write a kernal that would do image flipping on the fly, but that would probably be more costly in effort and space than simply adding another image.

OK. Unfortunately for me, there is no bright side. I need to make 256 (16 tank positions x 16 turret positions) objects. I could really use a graphic editor to speed this up.

As for the 1s, maybe its just me, but the Xs seem to stand out more. With that many objects, the 0s and 1s start to blend in. Or maybe that's just my brain turning into tapioca.

Thanks,
-s